Arsenal dropped two points against Fulham in frustrating fashion at the Emirates this afternoon.
Carelessness cost us another early goal inside a minute, but second half strikes from Bukayo Saka (pen) and Eddie Nketiah put us 2-1, after which the visitors were reduced to 10 men. However, more sloppiness saw them equalise from a corner, and despite plugging away and having 19 shots (11 on target), we couldn’t find a winner.
Mikel Arteta’s team selection will come under some serious scrutiny too, and the manager has thinking to do (hopefully not more over-thinking) before Man Utd next weekend.
Here’s how the players rated this afternoon.
Read the Arsenal 2-2 Fulham report and see the goals here
Arsenal 2-2 Fulham – Player Ratings
The ratings are hidden by default until you vote, but if you just want to view the ratings and the comments, flick the switch at the top above Aaron Ramsdale. Also, please give the ratings a few seconds to load.
We should keep Gaby, stick to last season,s back 4. And please, don’t rely on havertz too much, he need more time to adapt and getting back his Bundesliga goal scoring mojo!
Exactly, what the fuck is going on with not playing Gabriel? I would rather have not bought so many players (exc rice) and stopped all this nonsense. Early days but only one point from a 10 man Fulham at home is points dropped.
I can only imagine the club received an 80m offer from Saudi for Gabriel and is finalising the deal.
We can’t buy an equal replacement even with 80mn these days….
This. He and Saliba have the potential to be the best partnership in the league. Finding an equivalent replacement at any price will be difficult. I get it, if we get a ridiculous offer from Saudi, but IMO it should be closer to 100M what others went for. And we need to have a replacement with Tierney going and Tomi having injury issues.
He cannot be sold for a penny less than Caicedo… keep the guy, ffs!!!!!!
You can’t argue with that: West Ham’s Player of the Month
Big Gabi is our organizer in defense last season much like Ruben Dias was for MC when he first arrived to replace Vincent Kompany…Probably Laporte (Aymeric) will be willing to accept 100k a week from us now to take up that role and partner 200k a week Saliba. Big Gabi and his agent must feel like a chump now after agreeing to extend his new 100k a week contract last season so quickly and without hassle and I don’t blame him coz I would feel the same way in his place. One can be professional about this kind of thing… Read more »
I suspected the same!
Amen! Play your best center back pair and as a consequence play your best right back as well. Unless there is something in the background that we are not privy of, it is as simple as that.
Who was our best RB available for today?
Ben White, Obviously!!
Spot on
Inversion Obsession Confusion😂…..2 points thrown away by needless tinkering…our back 4 was as good as any in Europe when all fit last season…Don’t even think about selling Gabriel Meghales
Havertz is a 65m burden on arteta that would probably get him the sack. He needs to justify spending that kind of money on a thoroughy sht player the whole world knows is sht. What is he trying to prove that the whole world is blind and he’s the only smart one? Arteta your head is already on the blocks just for that Havertz deal. If he doesn’t make Havertz work that would be his downfall. Also game management. SAKA was knackered and he left him on and took Odegaard and Rice off. When he should be taking Saka off… Read more »
So with the big improvement all around, which is down to Arteta, his job is on the line because of one transfer?
You Arsenal fans smh
Lot of confusion right now and the team look lost. Big gab is obviously being lined up for a transfer elsewhere because there’s absolutely no logic keeping him out the team and playing with this ridiculous fkn inverted defense bs. I’ll fkn scream next time TP is forced to play RB. If this is being done to force Havertz into the team then Arteta has lost the plot.
Lost the plot or, maybe he’s trying something new, which after 3 games doesn’t seem to be working.
You Arsenal fans smh
One ? you have to see the situation from a Macro vision
He has too many signings and the highest net spent in our history by far
He has to deliver by style
One very bad transfer which people complained about before it came to be.
The arrogance exhibited by Arteta regarding Havertz is simply unbelievable. Every pundit had doubts about the deal, even Arsenal fans expressed misgivings. But Arteta believes he’s smarter than everyone and see what others can’t. As a result, he’s created an imbalance on the pitch: playing Partey at RB, White at CB. It has affected the partnerships players formed last season. Saka/White, Saliba/Gabriel, etc. The telepathy was there. Now, it’s all confusion. Arteta is a young manager, he should stop behaving like a veteran that has won everything: he hasn’t earned that right yet.
Sounds like you are the one who thinks he’s smarter than everyone.
A lot us think same!
I guess you were among the Ramsdale doubters? And the fans who preferred Maddison over Odegaard?
It would not be the first time that Mikel is right about something where he thinks differently, give the Havertz experiment some time.
I think Mikel might be the biggest ramsdale doubter, would not be surprised to see Raya start the next game. 30 million would be the most expensive backup keeper in the world.
The problem is now is not the time to experiment. We have a fantastic squad. We are playing Fulham at home. We have a system that worked so well last season. Experiment on the training ground.
Yep, there is no need to design the plane when we are already in the air
Nobody eve knows Maddison would have turned out, besides look at him in the last two games for sp*rs, you never can tell Bro.
We have seen Arteta spend months on trying to allow William fit…..If we remember it was Williams failure that allowed for Saka to break through and essentially save Arteta’s job….Will we see Arteta repeat this….
Ramsdale. You was right behind that signing from the news broke, weren’t you.
All the Arsenal fans wanting 60m Maddison instead of 30m Odegaard, were all right, weren’t they
True!
Well this is insane, even by Arsenal supporter standards. But yes, Havertz is that terrible.
😳
Mik is NOT ‘on the block’, but you are most certainly off yours, mate!
All transfers are inherently gambles. Some work out and some dont. It’s way too early in Havertz’ Arsenal career to reach any sort of conclusion
Well spoken 👌
Galaxy brain. Tinkering for no reason
As frustrated as I am with his whole dropping Gabriel / TP at RB thing, I don’t really think it’s fair to blame the manager for two supremely poor goals from individual lapses in concentration. There’s not much to say about the first; the second came from weak defending on a corner that came from a poor pass. I wouldn’t judge the “system” based on those goals.
Agreed those were poor goals to concede and system/team selection can hardly be the reason, but that said, the TP/Gabriel situation is due to Mikel trying to include kai in the team which is hardly working.
Don’t think you can blame Partey for Saka’s bad pass
Yep, complete nonsense putting any blame for that on Partey.
It’s an error from Saka but also by TP/Ben White because one of them clearly has to stay back in that central defensive space with Saliba, instead both of them are caught too high up the pitch. New tactics ain’t helping either :/
That is ridiculous. Nothing wrong with either Partey’s or White’s positioning on that play.
Apart from the fact that we had no RB… and Saka instinctively passed the ball back to the RB… who wasn’t there?
Point is – we FINALLY moulded a decent back 4 into place over last season (until Willy got injured). They are now all fit and we’re messing around with that proven formula???
So what you’re saying is that Saka should assume one/both of them should be there, instead of using those things on the front of his face to see that both of them had moved before the ball even got to him?
No what I’m saying is that we should try and maintain a defensive shape where in one misplaced pass doesn’t always lead to us conceding a goal. Especially given our track record of starting matches at home by gifting goals to weak opponents.
Yes, you are right. White was giving Saka an option for the backpass and that took him out of position; he couldn’t do anything about Saka’s terrible misplay. But Partey should have been more aware of the space left by his shifting into midfield and White’s showing for the pass, and got back in time to at least worry any Fulham player who latched onto a misplaced pass or miscontroled reception. That he did not is because he isn’t really a right back and does not have that instinctive positional awareness. I’m not thrilled by Ramsdale’s positioning either. No one… Read more »
It’s primarily on Saka but one has to ask why Thomas was already drifting out of the starting formation IN THE FIRST MINUTE?!!!
Settle into the match… suss your opponent out… get a sense of where and how they are pressing… and then start to switch things around, surely?
Good, and guess who that is on??? The manager of course!
There is a huge huge gap between Saliba and White leading up to their first goal. And TP is parrarel with Perreira as the ball is played to Saka. And as a part of the back 4 it’s his job to first prevent our opponents from scoring. Why is he on the left side of our only CDM I don’t know. He isn’t a natural full back and these tactics are confusing to everyone so maybe it’s not entirely his fault but you can’t expect to win PL games with such a terrible shape in defence. It’s not the first… Read more »
Sure I know I am nit picking but if we are serious about challenging City then we have to be pretty much flawless for an entire campaign.
Then that flawless logic includes Saka. It was his fault alone for the goal.
Ofc it does, when did I say Saka was not at fault?
But then again it’s not as if every misplaced pass everywhere in the world leads to a direct goal? There are other factors also which have an influence in preventing/conceding after said erroneous pass?
Yep – and later, he also stood motionless in the box only a metre goalside of Palinha and watched him score. The lad needs a refocus – towards the end of last season, he was clearly fatigued… this is game two!!
One thing you seem to ignore in your assessment is that TP was doing exactly what appears to be the managers plan/instruction whe we have possession, he’s drifting into midfield
He’s supposed to drift in and out of midfield. Also if he’s inverting surely it has to be on the right hand side of Declan Rice, so that it makes his recovery into the RB position quicker? Just look at the gap between Ben White and Saliba before Saka misplaces his pass and tell me if you really think that’s what Arteta wants? I dont care who is at fault whether it’s Saka, Saliba, White, Partey, Arteta or all of them combined. I love and support all the players who put on the shirt. All i care about is 3… Read more »
Not in the first bloody minute of game, ffs! Settle into a rhythm into your STARTING position? Suss the opposition out? Get a sense of where and how they’re pressing?
And then start to get sexy with positional switches etc.
Exactly – and I made the point above that this happened in the first bloody minute of the game!! At least let things settle, get into a groove and then start to get smart with shifting roles, etc.
It was a naive, basic error – which doesn’t excuse Saka’s ‘blind’ pass, but it does explain things, to a degree.
Square pegs in round holes… and that’s on Mik.
When TP moves into midfield White is in position. White then moves towards the right to offer a pass for Saka. TP surely can not predict that happening… No way you can put any of that on him.
Why was he moving to midfield from first second? Is the movement not supposed to be when the situation demands?
The “situation” that demands that is when we are in possession, which we were in that moment, regardless of time on the clock. Can’t fault a player for following instruction/tactics
of manager
Think partey and white were exactly where they were meant to be. That’s the 3rd time in 2023 we have conceded in the 1st minute, look how high a line Fulham were playing. Southampton figured it out from the kick off. The other team watch tape and have tactics as well, Fulham had pushed right up hoping for an interception.
I’d say Rice was more to blame for putting Saka in that position
Blame is largely on Saka’s ‘brain fart’ pass – but the point is also that Partey was AWOL, standing in his USUAL def mid position and not at RB… because he ain’t a RB !!!
This experiment has cost us on more than one occasion, now – it’s enough. And the fact that we are even considering selling Gabriel (for ANY price!) is super concerning.
Agreed. He is supposed to play CDM when we have the ball and RB when we don’t. He cannot run the 20 yards necessary to fill that space when Saka gives the ball away like that. No-one can. We look poor in this new formation. Havertz seems to be causing Martinelli to be isolated on the flank, while White can’t combine with Saka as much on the right. Partey was superb for us in the middle up until the injury last year and now we are asking him to be in two places at once. The modern game is about… Read more »
Gabriel has to start
It’s as simple as that.
All three of Martinelli, Magalhães and Jesus should be starting. Calling them Gabriel like you know them doesn’t help.
That tinkering from Arteta tho 😩
and they all say he understands the game.. poor man’s pep
Well said, the down votes are from the blind or dumb,
pep has more knowledge and more nous gained over years, pep lite has very little to fall back on when things get tough and probably pulls out his notebook to see what ‘pep told me to do’.
One drawn game and out come the knobheads…..
Don’t they just… the InstaBrats. Patience and vision ain’t their long suit.
Word to the wise junior Gunners: Rupert Murdoch didn’t invent football
I am starting to doubt Havertz
He’s not £70M quid material.
Certainly doesn’t show he is. He gets another 3-4 games to prove himself, tops
agreed, if he isn’t good enough for Chelsea he isn’t good enough for us, we should aim much higher, we got robbed
Just as many on here said about Odegaard… and Ramsdale… and and and
Maybe Arteta has something specific in mind for Havertz that, if it comes off, will be fantastic. It sure as hell hasn’t come off yet. He should have come off instead of Trossard. He was completely, utterly useless today.
It was a very bad day for Trossard today.
For a player who clearly has an unshakable belief in his own ability, his performance was a complete mystery to me
What was the use of letting Xhaka go if it was to buy Havertz?!!!
Looks like Vieira wants Havertz’s spot. And he looked like he deserves it today.
The whole team would play better, if you played players at their natural positions. Not fair on Partey or Kiwior.
Amen brother.
Xhaka left the blueprint on how to play the role with Vieira. I say give him a run of games in the role until havertz gets up to scratch, if ever he does. But we can’t keep ‘shoe horn’ him into the team. If you are going to be ruthless, it can’t go for some must be for all.
Arteta’s poor choices have played awfully into making Vieira seem like he’d suit more than Havertz. Arsenal should be defending as a team and walking the ball into the net. Vieira won’t help that with what he shows at the moment. Havertz box to box balance suits Arsenal. Too many Emirates era fans unable to grasp the club. Frustrating.
Yes – and Viera coming good is one thing, but one also has to question why, with a rejuvenated ESR ripping up the Eng u21 tournament, we felt the need to drop so much moolah on Kai?
Hope there’s a master plan – but can’t see the logic at this point.
I think Arteta is seriously over complicating things, I understand trying to make us less predictable but what he’s doing is actually making us less effective. There is a seriously talented squad there if he picks the correct players and formation. I do think he’ll figure it out eventually however. Don’t want to jump on a bandwagon or kick a player when he’s down but when I see Havertz name on the team sheet I feel disappointed. He just doesn’t bring enough or take enough risks for me. Vieira was class when he came on. I pray he kicks on… Read more »
Maybe. But I’m unconvinced that figuring it out eventually is good enough.
No disrespect intended but managers learn their trade at Macclesfield, not Arsenal
So far, it only seems unpredictable to our own players.
Exactly, in the 3 games so far the opposition managed us reasonably well. They adapted to our unpredictability better than our own players did. It needs to stop, tried and failed
He plays in midfield with 2 other midfielders and 2 fullbacks who also play in midfield.He’s simply not on the ball long enough to make an impact. I’m sure you’ve also seen Odegaard and Partey’s individual impact drop as well. There’s only one ball, and if it has to go to 5 other people before it reaches Havertz, there’s only so much he can do
One of those games where everyone (except maybe Havertz and Trossard) scores an extra point if we see out the tie. Can only hope we go back to our standard back four against United, perhaps with Partey at 6 and Rice at 8.
I would have thought the team picks itself. Same as last season with rice replacing Xhaka. Partey is class in the holding role. Saka martinelli and Jesus up front. Something tells me we won’t see that though. Arteta is gonna stick with this experiment. There’s no need in my book to be experimenting.
0/10 to Arteta for fixing what is not broken and costing us two 2 points today.
Our problem last season was losing the Saliba/Gabriel partnership, now he does that on purpose…
Spot on mate
How would Gabriel made any difference for the goals we conceded today? He would be nowhere near the first goal and he wouldn’t mark the guy that shot the second since he wasn’t close to our CBs.
The system is better as it was last season. We may have been out of sight. Also Gabriel could absolutely make a difference with their second goal. He heads clear unlike the 3 players who jumped and and did not
Prevented many goals from corners. He was even a goal scoring CB.
Just not good enough. We need to smash man utd to make up for this result.
A win v Man Utd would clearly be welcomed but will not answer the underlying issues that Arteta has thus far failed to address: we cannot defend well enough to keep clean sheets (even at home) Most teams who win a corner against Arsenal will be disappointed if they don’t score, a bang average central defender is playing at left back, a holding midfielder is playing at right back, our best right back is playing as a central defender, players not deemed good enough to start turn out to be better than those who started (Ntekiah and Viera)
Haverts was more like a 2/10. Messed up 3 simple passes, constantly offside even though he had time to look along the line and looked like a shell of a player. I hope its just a confidence thing because he still looks like haverts of Chelsea.
I did give Havertz 0.5/10
Zinchenko surely gets less than 5.5. He caused the corner we conceded that led to the goal. Didn’t bother jumping when the corner was taking and try head it away. Not as accurate with his passing, though some of his crosses into their box were nice. Just wondering who we have that can score from headers in such situations… Havertz?
Eddie?
Yeah, he had to start. He earned it in the first two games.
Zinchenko is prone to mistakes which is why Pep let him go. He’s good when he inverts not so much at other times. Gabriel saved us so much when Zinchenko made a mistake last season.
Maybe Arteta will start Havertz as an inverted right back. Ridiculous.
Big Gabi.
Zinchenko almost always makes the team better and he certainly did today. I don’t know how anyone could have watched and not seen that, “Not as accurate with his passing”–as who?
Zinchenko is talented but he’s also a liability.
Don’t be a ‘one-eyed patriot’ mate – Zinch is excellent driving us forward, certainly.
But he is also a liability when put under pressure on defence. He repeatedly makes key errors – and our opponents have all clocked that towards the end of last season and WILL exploit this one… watch this space.
Zingy and Jesus don’t get any flak. They’re guaranteed a start when fit, yet, they don’t do what we signed them for: defend and score respectively. Agreed, they bring other qualities to the team. A doctor knowing how to repair a car doesn’t change his main duties. Zingy cost us the game at Anfield last season. We started with no recognized full backs, but are loaning a competent LB, our options are injury-proned Zinny ( who can’t defend, Tierney is also injury-prone), Tomi, and Kiwior. What is going on? Tierney is not a loafer, Arteta doesn’t believe in him, the… Read more »
Some of these comments are daft. Zinchenko was absolutely the catalyst to the first half of last season, and his introduction (with viera) changed the game completely today. It’s bananas having the offense tick due to the LB, but that’s what typically happens with Z. (I do think that Jesus is underwhelming, though)
Those comments are not daft. I’ve been saying the same since pre-season…LB is a liability for us, massive weak spot in the team that fcks everything else up…zinny can’t defend, Tomi is 10x better on the right…kiwior can’t play the position and we just shipped our best defensive LB to Spain….confused? Yeah me too…
I don’t blame Tierney for going to Real Sociedad as he just wants to play but his release makes me question Arteta’s sanity….
Zinch is, at best, an average defender… no more than that, for all that he brings to our attacking midfield.
I got vilified on here towards the end of last season for daring to point out that, for his attacking contribution, Zinch is really iffy when put under pressure on defence.
Based on Fulham… nothing has changed this season. It’s a worry!
I gotta say I miss Xhaka. We had more cohesion last year – that was the intangible that made it work, the fact that everyone was together, we pressed together, we created passing lanes and kept the ball together. Swapping out the midfield of last year – i.e. the players the entire game ran through in Xhaka, Partey and Zinchenko for Rice, Havertz and… I guess Partey but hngh – the point is it was always going to disturb those crucial metrics. We won last season because we kept the ball well – this year we don’t keep the ball… Read more »
I think the easier pick is putting White back at RB – Saka was getting stuck on the touch line in the first half, and suddenly we started creating overlaps again when White moved back to RB. We actually don’t need a serious ball-player at CB, their job is mostly just to give it to the craftsmen and give it efficiently.
I don’t get why nobody talks about Ramsdale. He cost us two points today. He was out of position for both (for the second just look at the replay, he loses sense of his goal and goes too much to his left). A world class goalkeeper saves both of those shots. Hell, if we had Leno, we would have won today. Yes, Saka made a wrong pass and the defending of the corner was bad but that’s why you want a world class goalkeeper, to cover for the individual mistakes of others. Ramsdale had such games last season too, especially… Read more »
Ah that’s very harsh, he made a save at the end from Traore that was the difference between a draw and a defeat. He is also asked to play very high which is why he was out of position for the first goal. Agree he was poor for the second though.
None of the two goals were his fault bro.
The first Andreas missed the shot, catching Rams wrong footed; the second the ball can’t travel that far and meet an attacker unmarked.
I believe that Ramsdale was definitely one of the 4 players at fault for the first goal. You can’t run away from the attacker who is charging at the goal and then act surprised when he takes a shot.
Oh ffs, Ramsdale moved to cover the wider part of the gaping goal, and the attacker smartly shot into the vacated space. It’s worse than blaming the keeper for not saving a penalty. The goal was Saka’ fault, 100 percent, not Ramsdale, or Partey, or White. He is a great player who I really love, and he made a bad mistake that cost a goal.
Nothing ‘smart’ about that shot – he shanked it and got lucky. He was aiming to curl it around Rambo into the top right.
I think the problem was that he hesitated whether attempt sweeping up the pass or retreat for a second or so, when it should have been an obvious/automatic decision. That meant he had to turn and run rather than simply backpedal and set himself, resulting in him losing gps and veering way too far to the left. Even if the shot was miskicked he would have had a simple save if he was positioned correctly and had set himself. But yeah, 2 or 3 others involved in that shambles The 2nd I need to watch again but on first viewings… Read more »
The second goal is not in the bottom corner. Just watch the replay from behind Ramsdale, he loses sense of his position and goes too much to his left. He is far from the center of his goal when the shot is taken.
If he’s not to his left and their forward gets the header in st the near post them he would be totally out of position. He was in the right position. The fault was 3 of our players jumping for ball and none of them made it their own. End of.
Zinchenko we’re looking at you…..
He was put in a classic ‘no win’ situation created by an appalling Saka pass. If he comes out he gets chipped and if he retreats, the attacker has the whole goal to aim at. No point anyone deflecting blame with the flimsy Partey/White inversion mantra
Neither of the shots went to a corner, they were saveable, he was just out of position and a bit slow for the second one. A 38 year old David Seaman saves both of them. I mean he saved much worse, that’s the difference between a keeper that wins you leagues and a keeper that is just good. I do think that Raya would have saved at least one of them. And also that’s the difference between a win and a draw.
Safe hands saves everything as long it’s not a shot from the middle of the pitch!
Ronaldinho’s free kick was not saveable. It went from high above to the top corner. Just look at the trajectory of the ball. Disrespecting Arsenal’s best keeper ever is just ridiculous. We won a
three leagues with him and two doubles and he was 38 for the last one. Comparing Ramsdale to Seaman is just ludicrous.
It’s that ponytail dammit. Aaron needs to grow the mane….
Spot on. Saka, Rice and Havertz ALL watched Palinha attack that corner and no-one moved!
The worst thing City have done with their money is collect the biggest group of players with no personality (and Jack Grealish) and put them all together. I can see that there are statistically better players than Ramsdale but I don’t like the idea of us getting rid of a player who seems to resonate with the heart of the club in order to catch up with Bland Soulless FC. i get that the ship of theseus sails ever onwards but sometimes it’s nice to be able to point at something and say “that guy’s Arsenal” rather than binning them… Read more »
getting rid of popular players for better replacements is what top managers like pep does, hard choices,
it’s not a popularity contest and not wise to keep someone with plenty of soul who might cost arsenal the league
The back pass from Saka is really bad, into loads of space which no one is expecting. In the replays you see our players take a second or two to react – Ramsdale is already turning to run towards goal but he’s got his back turned and Pereira hits it first time. Not sure what else you want him to do there? Second goal from the corner is in a packed penalty area, I’d say the fault there lies with the (lack of) marking rather than the keeper. Weird flex to suggest one player cost us the points here when… Read more »
The second wasn’t his fault, it was a good hit through a crowd of bodies and more or less into the corner. Can’t defend him for the first one, that’s a stinker, though obviously he’s not the only one at fault for it.
0 out of 10 to Arteta for his lineups. 0 out of 10 for not bringing Gabriel on to see out the match and clear the danger on the corner kick where the team decided to take a nap.
These 2 points probably won’t haunt us because we won’t be that close this year with Arteta trying to squeeze Partey into right back and Havertz into Xhakas spot.
Awful.
Yep – we’re defending a one goal lead and you don’t bring on your best defender? WTF?
Last season, started season with a bang and faded in the end. Hopefully, the reverse is the case this season. But first, let’s go back to the basics, that would help a ton. United next week, need to absolutely win that!
Best 35 minutes for Vieira in an Arsenal shirt. Imagine if we could get that from him for 90 minutes…he’d be a world beater.
Definitely his best game so far. Need to see more of this. Start him over Havertz next week.
I wrote on the article announcing the signing of Havertz that I was excited about it, as I watched him a lot in Germany playing as a 10 for Leverkusen and he was just about the best 10 in the world at that point. I was worried when Chelsea got him because I knew how good he was and how much he would improve their team. Then they played him as a 9 for three seasons and totally fucked up his whole mentality. Long story short, give the guy a bit of time. I’ve seen what he can be, and… Read more »
I fear for Ramsdale. Though he wasn’t the only one to blame, what was he thinking running away from goal. Leno was sacrificed after some terrible team performance despite being our best player.
Rambo more than makes up for his positioning on the first goal with that save against Traore at the end imho. For me, others made more egregious mistakes and we were so sloppy across the whole team. Ramsdale also gives me more confidence than Leno, I think he’s a better keeper and I’d much rather keep him in cause he’s saved our skin more than once in the past.
He’s pretty useless if he rushes out of the box and leaves and empty goal behind, he had to rush back to try and cover the far post, just got unlucky with the fact that Perreira miss hit his shot
Unpredictability is great! But not if we’re unpredictable for our own players! And especially at the back. We need that solidity from last season. Sort out Gabriel and get him back!
Exactly, even if the opposition are confused for 30 minutes, it’s countered by us being off it for 90.
How everyone thinks Havertz has a worse game than Partey is beyond me. Partey totally messed the team up with his poor positioning and passing, Havertz was dropping deep to do his job. Havertz was meh but partey actively hindered the team! Bring back Gabi!
That’s because partey is a midfielder being asked to play right back and invert.
You miss the point. TP should be nowhere near RB, it’s not his position to play. He’s being forced into this in order to start Havertz…who fkn sucks!!
Nonsense
Comments are a bit toxic today. “tinkering” this and “tinkering” that. He’s tried some new stuff, to fix issues that lost us the title last season, it takes balls to do that. Hasn’t worked so far, but it doesn’t mean it was wrong to try. You think we wouldn’t lose points throughout the season if we stuck with the same lineup from last season? The two points dropped will hurt but this is a long season and it’s about much more than this particular game. I do hope we go back to a back 4 for now, but I’m not… Read more »
You cant fix the issue of wilting under pressure by changing formations and moving players around at the start of the season. Play our best 11 and give the opposition the problems to solve. We don’t even know if we have a problem until he plays the best team and they come unstuck.
I thought a big part of the drop off at the end of last season was due to players being knackered and injured? Playing people now not only helps later in the season in terms of fitness, but it also shows others have a chance of getting in the team and builds understanding on what their role is/should be. I’m with Ebo – Arteta needs to see players playing together to even know what his best 11 is. This is all part of a team learning how to play together and get the best out of each other and the… Read more »
We know the best team and last season was due mainly to pressure getting to us. Nothing to do with fatigue at all, we were playing one game a week.
He broke one of the things that was actually working, namely White at RB. We fell away because Saliba got injured, but he’s not injured any more, so go back to what was working when we were top of the table.
If you think Saliba’a injury was the only thing that lost us the title last season then I don’t know what to tell you except either you didnt watch, or forgot how we looked offensively towards the end. Teams figured us out. We needed a plan B, ironically also what tons of fans were crying for.
Havertz is not plan b mate. Nor is TP at RB.
Why not, because you decided it isn’t? Or because it failed today, so now you can be smart in hindsight? Its a completely new formation which is the very definition of a plan B.
A new formation using new players in the best roles, is one thing. Using certain players in specific ways at the cost of having to shoe-horn others into clearly uncomfortable roles, is NOT smart. Maybe Thomas will – eventually – become a RB, but the title may be gone by then, and the simple fact remains that, on form, he is an imperious mid-fielder… why change that, ffs? Likewise – the anonymity of Gabriel is puzzling? Is he for sale? And if not, how on earth do you not play what was shaping up as the best back line in… Read more »
We weren’t ‘figured out’ we just wilted under the pressure of a title race.
So on the one hand we have this psychoanalysis of the team from a fan who’s never met any of the players involved, and on the other hand we have Arteta who communicates with them every day and has tons of other data at his disposal, who came to the conclusion that we got too predictable and that was one of the key things to address this season. Which seems like a more reliable assessment?
What do you think he’s going to do, come out and say the team bottled it? Of course he would say they were figured out…
Accept it my friend and you can learn something today. Keep trying to justify your fantasy theory that we got found out as opposed to wilted under pressure and missed saliba badly and you will never get heaven.
Yes we need plan B, but we dont need to change formation. Just slight variation to the same formation with different players. Look at City last year. They just put proper defenders at LB and RB while moved up Stones to CDM. Same 433, different players.
I agree about White at RB though, I’d like to see that again. But it’s not one position in a vacuum, you want to fix our predictability and maybe our defending on the left and maybe that means you have to try something else across the back, which might work just as well as the other thing that worked. It damn well didn’t this time, but to be afraid to try, that’s rarely a good thing in life.
Our title challenge falter last season because we lacked squad depth. Saka, White, Gabriel, Xhaka, Odengaard, and Partey were run into the ground. It wasn’t because of tactics. I may also add inexperience, keeping Zinny and Partey after the break at Anfield was a mistake. That game cost us the title.
Arteta tried it against Forest and Partey got repeatedly roasted. It didn’t work much better against Palace. How many times does Partey have to prove he is killing us on our right side? OK, Thomas is not to blame for Arteta’s stubbornness, but he didn’t give us enough in midfield to justify his selection as in inverted RB either.
How is this new set-up, that clearly has the players confused/underperforming, fixing issues of player fatigue, injury, and title-race pressure from last season?
Unrelated
That’s what fkn pre season is for ffs.
Awful. Nothing ballsy. Enjoy your side piece.
I really don’t get Eddie not starting today and keeping Gabriel out. Mikel needs to stop overthinking things. Havertz has a lot to do too. He was awful today.
On the positive side, Zinch & Vieira were very good – as was Eddie – when they came on.
Zilch was not very good. He gave away a simple pass to end a spell of possession when we were up a man. Then we got scored on.
Zinch* 😉
Zinchenko cannot defend (repeat and rinse)
We dropped 3 points entirely because of Zinch – first, losing possession sloppily and second, gifting them an unnecessary corner.
And that’s without even asking where the hell he was for that corner he’d just given away!
Eddie definitely more than a 6.5 for me. Scored a crisp goal from being in a proper striker’s position, earned a red card and fought for every ball in the air.
I hope Arteta goes back to basics. Playing Kiwior and Partey as fullbacks left Gabby and Saka alone, constantly facing 1v2 situations. I’d rather have Partey at the middle, Gabriel CB and White RB.
Side note: my boi Havertz born offside jeez.
0 for this wank formation.
IDK what happen with Arteta, why he brings Jurginho for Odegaard, when we are at home vs 10 men Fulham, and we are leading 2 – 1 ?this 1st 3 matches in this season remind me to Arsenal 2 season ago, not Arsenal last season
I don’t blame Jorginho for the two points dropped but you have to wonder at a coach who wants to shore up the win but we end up looking less secure by defending the lead.
Think the shine is really starting to come off Odegaard. The difference in aggressive intent, decision making, and forward driving between Vieira and him was quite a gulf. Odegaard better at retaining the ball but I would love to see what Vieira can do, looks a lot more determined this season.
Odegaard has been arguably our best player (debate is between him and Saka) for a little over a season and a half now. And you want to just drop him because a guy who, according to these comment sections, has consistently underperformed his entire time with us had a good 35 minute cameo? Come on…
I understand today was frustrating, but let’s not go jumping the gun here.
We can agree on Odegaard’s quality without shitting on Vieira
Absolutely. I think Odegaard might be the best player in the league, not just the team (Saka, DeBruyne, Haaland). I thought something was a little off with him in the second half, maybe carrying a knock (I actually wondered at first if the hard rain was affecting him). Vieira looked very good today, and I expect he will continue to contribute in the way that, I assume, Arteta has expected.
I’ve always viewed Vieira as our most natural 10 replacement for when Odegaard needs rest, which is why I’m always a little confused when I see people saying he should be repurposed as an attacking 8. I think if Arteta is able to help him maintain the level he showed today consistently, him and Odegaard could form a very potent 1-2 punch. That being said, he played alongside Odegaard for a good portion of the time he was on today. Who knows if/how much that helped him. Not to take anything away from him, he was – by quite a… Read more »
There is defs a certain smart logic in creating Viera as the left-sided foil to Ode… it will split defences into chaos not knowing where that killer ball will come from. Ode is very rightside oriented and having defence now trying to cover incisive passes from both flanks could be interesting?
Plus – they both have a lethal long-shot so can be left alone 20 yards out, either.
In fairness, Vieira came on when Fulham were tired and pushed back. When he’s put under pressure on the halfway line, that’s when we’ll see if he can challenge Ødegaard.
You’re not allowed to criticize MO on here ever…although you are of course spot on. He gets subbed in most games. Disappears when needed most.
This is deliberately provocative but does contain a vestige of truth. I admire MO as a player hugely and would argue that last season he was in the conversation as ‘best midfielder in the league’ but yes, against teams who can deny him time and space (i.e. the better teams against whom we usually struggle) he tends to flatter to deceive.
Based on one game? This is premier league football mate, not InstaGoal.
Dreadful performance that epitomises Arteta mismanagement
Some peeps just never deliver on their promise Stan
The starting lineup was the problem. This is on Arteta more than any players. I cant even imagine what this lineup is supposed to do when it works. Extremely annoying from Arteta with hus tinkering of back 4, Partey’s position, and trying to fit in Havertz.
Just dropping havertz is Arteta’s solution to all this inconsistencies.. the 1st team will pick itself with Kai on the bench
Yes indeed. Replace Xhaka with Rice and keep what we had mastered last season. Havertz hasnt done enough to win a spot in starting line up yet. Arteta is showing favoritism to justify his acquisition.
White, with his great long ball passes across field to Martineli, should have started at rightback, he was Arsenals best defender and passer of the ball. If he started at rightback we would have avoided the first goal and probably won the game. Wrong tactics by Arteta. He is changing the formation to accommodate Havertz in midfield by dropping Partey from midfield to fullback. I would use Havertz as a sub and keep Partey and Rice in midfield. Play wright a rightback for now while timba is injured, or buy a new rightback. Nketia is improving, so llay him up… Read more »
Trossard was poor but undeserving of any Freudian slip
MA needs to stop statting Havertz. He’s as usefeful as a programmed bot
Wouldn’t a programmed bot be quite useful generally?
Aside from the distraction of Gabriel, that performance was pretty much what happened on several occasions last season, but got away with it by sheer determination and a bit of luck until the run in. A reality check today. Got to stop shipping goals so easily and having to chase games. Jesus maybe is a two edged sword, one of those players a manager is “expected” to play, so subconsciously always leaving the door ajar by virtue of Eddy not being first choice up top, like today.
Well after United’s result that’s me setting a daily reminder to not listen to a word Gary Neville says this season.
Nostradamus prophesised this back in 1560 based on his flame and water gazing: Although the younger Neville sibling, feeble minded and considered by those footballing ladies entrusted to his tutelage as girly enough to excel at cricket and crochet, Tis the elder Gareth, whose quarrelsome tongue and gobshite chancre that need to be expelled from the perfidious Albion at all costs.
Nothing has bean learnt from last season.
The key to winning the title is defending well, especially at home. So what does Arteta do? He gets rid of our brilliant centre-back partnership of Saliba and Gabriel then plays Partey at right-back! F**k off!!!
And that brilliant White/Saka partnership on the right has been dismantled too. Stupid.
And I’m sorry but Kai Havertz? 65 million quid? Don’t make me laugh!!!
The club needs to be brave now and relieve Arteta of the job. Now.
A new manager could still win us the title this season.
Reaching new levels of reactionary moronic comments even for you Fats. Wah!!!
moronic indeed, this squad isn’t good enough to beat city, closest team in the league to them lerhaps but still not close enough,
Steady fats…steady…
Come on, it’s two points dropped for sure, but not quite title pursuit ending stuff!
We certainly need to improve, however Arteta has shown that he has the capability to delver this.
If you mean he has shown he has the capability to deliver the title then that would clearly be incorrect
Think of all the pies we could have bought for 65 million quid….
You monumental chop.
The conventional trend at the moment is to sacrifice space for MA’s shenanigans to try out. That’s alright gor the first 3 games but it’s obviously drawing silly blanks. Do your shit all you wish MA, we’ll give you the benefit of doubt. But do it with Big Gab in yhe starting lineup
Those few mins were the best I’ve seen from Vieira, you can tell he was playing with confidence.
Hopefully he kicks on from here
If arteta continue with this new line up, it will cost us more points. Last season worked so well, our issue was we didn’t hv enough depth. Now this season, we do hv depth… But we are playing players all over the place… Even us fans are confused with wtf is arteta thinking. Ben white/saka partnership worked.. havertz… He needs to be rotated. Arteta tried to put him in the first 11 but the by product is.. we sacrificed too many players.
I guess this is what most of the fans are missing. Whatever experimenting has to done, now is the time to do it whilst the window is open.
We can change our transfer strategy.
But, not acceptable that experiments are done the cost of points. Come on Arteta, you know better than this!
Last season when saliba got injured, fans were begging arteta to play White at right center back and anyone at rb so holding didn’t have to play. Arteta kept White at rb. This season he puts White at CB and plays Partey at rb. Hilarious
the invertibles at its best
what a joke, extra man on the field and concede and could have lost towards the end, starting the season as last year finished, frailties accross the pitch but it all stems from the manager, the pep lite version is not enough
the last sub was very off. why bring in Jorgh? you re playing 11 against 10…
Because, despite what all the short-sighted naysayers say, he is one of (if not the best) passer of the ball in the team, and if MA is hoping to unlock the defense to get that third goal that would put the game away he is the logical sub.,l
To shore up two points dropped at home….
I am of the most fanatic Arteta supporters. But today he has only himself to blame. If he continues his efforts to accommodate Havertz, will cost us dearly. Enough is enough. Get back to basics. Thomas and Declan in midfield against United with last year’s back four. Havertz on the bench please.
Disagree. Shift back to the back four of last season: White-Saliba-Gabi-Zinny. Play Rice in Partey’s role and Havertz in Xhaka’s, with the rest of the forward line picking itself. We would absolutely destroy people.
Havertz has only had three prem league games so far and people have written him off. The while team was poor today not just him.
The same fans would have written off TH14 by now. It took him nine games I think to score a goal!
Are you forgetting the other 3 years he has played for Chelsea ? He’s not come from a different league he should be hitting the ground running or be benched . Smith Rowe, Trossard or FV would be a better choice to play in the 8 over him.
Well said, he has had years to prove himself and categorically hasn’t, he was a failure at Chelsea, that’s why they sold him.
I don’t write off Havertz, but I don’t think he should be starting. Three years of playing at shit show Chelsea doesn’t mean he knows how to play in an Arsenal team. The same goes for Rice, who puts a shift in but isn’t totally on the same wavelength as his teammates. The problem is that Mikel is determined to shoehorn all his new toys into the team, even if it means playing half the team out of position and breaking up the successful partnerships we had last season. This team now has a level of depth that we haven’t… Read more »
He’s a talented player whose confidence is completely shot at the moment. This means that Arteta needs to take him out of the firing line for a bit
Hey @arseblog,
Think we should have a rating column for MA too. Seems its MS plan to try something innovative and backfired instead. The players seems uncertain in the start and clearly shown the
With the 1st min concede
I would like to talk about the ref standards. We are chasing the win and the ref clearly has a tendency of going against us (Vieira foul) , United in the same situation gets EVERY SINGLE FOUL on their way, have you seen their penalty? It’s like playing 2 different championships
Do you mean the one where Vieira dived on the right wing and covered up the ball expecting the whistle? He has a great cameo but that was bad, blatant dive and he has a habit of doing that. But I agree Tierney was awful as usual. What is it with refs and their little smirks as they give (or don’t give) fouls? We already know you’re an annoying cunt, pal. You don’t need to play it up.
Maybe it was a dive, but you can be 1000% sure Bruno Fernandes gets a foul for that
No you are right. The “greater Manchester area PGMOL” at their finest.
Paul Tierney has refereed 17 games with Arsenal with 6 x Arsenal wins, 5 x Draws and 6 x wins for our opponents, He’s awarded 35 x yellow cards, 1 x red card and 1 x 2nd yellow card to Arsenal players. He’s awarded 40 yellow cards and 1 x 2nd Yellow card to our opponents. He’s awarded 6 pens for Arsenal and 3 pens for our opponents. Why don’t you fact check anything before diving down the paranoid rabbit hole matey?
There sure are a lot of you quick to turn on a manager who has completely turned this team around and made us title challengers WAY ahead of schedule. Think back to where this team was at the end of Wenger’s reign and under Unai. Have some patience. We have one of the best teams and best managers in the world, and one who is unlikely to leave for greener pastures any time soon. Both are very young and are only going to get better. We are very lucky, as I wouldn’t take any other team or manager in the… Read more »
I’m not turning on him – but I am criticizing him. Big difference. A nuance that seems to perpetually escape you…
I’d have Ange Postecoglou or Thomas Tuchel in a heartbeat
You can… trot off up the Lane to the Toilet or ferry across to Munich, why don’t you?
I never wanted Arteta as manager. He’s done a lot better than I anticipated which pleases me and I’ll always support whoever is in charge, but does anyone know the name of the current Man City assistant manager? Didn’t think so.
As so many have said just don’t understand why Gabriel hasn’t been starting and why he didn’t come in when Zinchenko (since he played with him all year last year when Zinchenko would invert we was so used to covering along with Saliba) did especially when he is our biggest threat in the air on corners on both ends.
Really bad passing all around today from nearly everyone, just too lackadaisical too often especially in the back and middle thirds leading to too many easy chances for Fulham including the early goal.
Pecking order for the left 8 position now…
1. Fabio Vieria
2. Smith Rowe
3. Havertz.
Don’t think winning a couple headers in a game is good enough for you to keep those two ballers out the team. He’s got to work hard to justify that position.
So by virtue of playing *checks notes* zero minutes so far this season, ESR has suddenly jumped our $65M signing? Good thing you don’t manage a footy team.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder (for which the head is not required…)
We have our own Claudio Ranieri in the house in Mikel Arteta.
Apart from the 18 clubs v 1 they’ve managed, the 11 trophies (including a Premier League) v 2 they’ve won then yes, likes two peas in a pod really.
you mean the ranieri that won the league with leicester?
It was a shit game, the tactics didn’t play out, player roles might want a rethink. I think it’s also worth noting though, commentators decried Arteta shoehorning White in at RB last year and that played out pretty well. He needs to try stuff, sometimes it won’t work. We move.